rabble.ca - 2008 US Electionhttps://rabble.ca/category/tags-issues/2008-us-election
enIs Barack Obama the Bob Rae of the United States? https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/james-laxer/2009/04/barack-obama-bob-rae-united-states
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">James Laxer</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/default_images/rabble-filler-photo.jpg?itok=sM2nM-OL" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>It may seem a preposterous proposition but the political perils in the path of Barack Obama are remarkably similar to the hazards that Bob Rae confronted during his years as an NDP premier of Ontario.</p>
<p> Obama is in power during a period of deep economic crisis just as Bob Rae was in the early 1990s. Both leaders were swept into office by electorates that wanted to be rid of the old ways of doing things and were seeking a new and progressive way forward.</p>
<p> It’s hard to recall this so many years later, but when Bob Rae brought the NDP to power in September 1990, there was a surge of hope in the province. The new premier literally threw open the doors at Queen’s Park and invited everyone into the Ontario legislative building for a vast party. Rae’s job approval ratings surged so that when his face showed up on the giant screen at the Sky Dome at a Blue Jays game, the crowd cheered. </p>
<p> Rae was an articulate, personable young man who told people the truth in ways so different from the obfuscations of the Tories and the tortuous rhetoric the Liberals offered to defend the scandal-ridden government of David Peterson. </p>
<p> The great question for both Rae and Obama when they were elected was this: on whose behalf would they govern?</p>
<p> On the night the NDP was elected, September 6,1990, Bob Rae told a jubilant crowd that he would govern on behalf of all Ontarians. He was making a fateful choice. He was reaching out to the business community in the province and making it known that he wanted the approbation of both small and big business. From day one, Rae was shifting away from the NDP platform which included such reforms as the creation of a system of public auto insurance of the kind that had been implemented in Western Canada by social democratic governments. </p>
<p> During a very difficult recession, Rae was trying to migrate to the political centre, a space which would allow him to expand his left-wing political base. Over his years in power, Rae tried a great many things to make this work. He brought in labour reforms that banned strike breaking and eased the path for the formation of unions. His government established an employment equity commission in 1991 and two years later it introduced affirmative action to increase the numbers of women, aboriginals, non-whites and disabled persons in the public sector.</p>
<p> Rae’s government tried initially to sustain public spending to protect Ontarians from the recession and then did a U-Turn, drastically slashing spending to control the deficit. It ditched the plan to establish public auto insurance on the grounds that the economic climate was too negative and that the move would result in reduced employment in the insurance industry. In 1993, the government introduced its notorious Social Contract, which re-opened public sector contracts, froze the salaries of public sector employees and imposed “Rae Days”, unpaid days off for public employees which amounted to pay cuts. Key trade union leaders denounced the Social Contract as a betrayal. </p>
<p> Much of labour was furious with Bob Rae. The people who made up the NDP’s left-wing political base were disillusioned. And at the end of it all, despite his years of courting business, the business leaders prepared to support Rae could have assembled in a telephone booth. What Bob Rae did was to stake out a position in the political centre to which no one wanted to go, neither left nor right. From “dead centre”, Rae led his party into the 1995 election and political oblivion. The NDP fell to seventeen seats and third place in the Ontario legislature, its vote percentage falling from 37.6 in 1990 to 20 in 1995.</p>
<p>What about Barack Obama? Is he en route to becoming a “dead centre” centrist?</p>
<p>Hopefully not, but the danger signs are there. On a political stage much vaster than the one Bob Rae stood on, Barack Obama generated hope and the promise of change among millions of Americans including African Americans, Latinos, the young and the well-educated. He won a sweeping political victory, recasting the political map of the United States in the process.</p>
<p> From the beginning, Barack Obama campaigned as a centrist, promising to govern on behalf of all Americans and pledging to purge Washington of its poisonous partisanship. Working with Republicans was a key part of Obama’s political agenda from the outset. </p>
<p> At the time of his electoral victory, Barack Obama’s base of political support was wider than that of Bob Rae and its make-up differed in important ways. In addition to a wide swath of working class support, especially among African Americans and Latinos, Obama enjoyed considerable backing from highly educated and wealthy white voters. He also had sizeable support from elements of the business community including that of much of Wall Street. Needless to say, Bob Rae was not backed by Bay Street. It’s noteworthy that Obama’s voting base was quite different from that of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the New Deal years of the 1930s. FDR enjoyed a more solid white working class vote, backing from white segregationists in the South, a large farmer vote, but less backing from the top ranks of American business.</p>
<p> How does Obama make his coalition work? Does he lean in favour of the wage and salary earners in his base or does he pay heed to his Wall Street backers?</p>
<p> Obama ran on a program that promised broad change, including a health care plan (not universal medicare) that would ensure that every American has coverage, and an environmental policy that would bring the United States into the fight against climate change and that would reduce American dependence on imported petroleum. He also pledged, rather vaguely, to overhaul the American educational system to provide high quality education for all students. On taxes, he promised tax cuts for 95 per cent of income earners and modest tax increases for the top 5 per cent.</p>
<p>Hope was the central message, but whose hopes would be realized, and at whose expense? That was kept deliberately unclear in the Obama message.</p>
<p> Just over two months after Obama was sworn into office, the United States is seething with populist rage. Storm clouds have been forming ever since the bailouts of financial firms began in the fall. What caused the maelstrom to burst were payments of bonuses totaling $165 million to executives of the American International Group (AIG) a couple of weeks ago, in the wake of Washington’s massive bailout of AIG which cost more than $170 billion. Everywhere across the country, ordinary Americans were furious. With rising anxiety, they had numbly accepted the vast Wall Street bailouts, and the talk of trillions more dollars needed to get the financial sector and the auto industry back in business. But the idea of the bozos who had presided over the AIG plunge into toxicity receiving handouts of a million dollars each, and in some cases more, blew the lid off. </p>
<p>I was in California when the hurricane hit. On television, on the front pages of papers in small and large cities, in conversations in cafes, the fury was everywhere. CNN covered a busload of working people, some of them political activists, going on a tour of the palatial homes owned by AIG executives, to deliver the message to the doorstep that they were angry. They were met by security guards who halted them and so they delivered their message to the Pinkerton police. CNN titled the segment “The Lives of the Rich and Shameless.” </p>
<p>I couldn’t believe the difference in tone when I got back to Canada. There is plenty of anger among those losing jobs here, but since Michael Ignatieff killed the Liberal-NDP coalition and lined up with Stephen Harper on the budget the lid has been on. In Canada, so far, the anger is subterranean, more sullen than overt. And the Canadian media is about as populist as a wet firecracker.</p>
<p>American populism extends from left to right. As has been the case for decades, when it rears its head, populism can be anti-capitalist one moment, then racist. It can demand fairness for all one day, and can recoil in fury against the guy next door who is living on the dole the next. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, populism showed up under the banner of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), with its drive to unionize industrial workers, that of Louisiana’s Huey Long, as well as that of the fascistic Father Charles Coughlin. And Coughlin was adept at sounding ultra radical as when he urged his audience to “attack and overpower the enemy of financial slavery.”</p>
<p>The problem for Obama is that many of his top officials are in bed with Wall Street. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, to name one prominent case, has been a Wall Street enabler for years. Mentored by Clinton era Treasury Secretaries, Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, Geithner was named president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2003. He was critically involved in the sale of Bear Stearns, in the bailout of AIG and the decision to let Lehman Brothers go down. </p>
<p>He was the principal architect of the Obama administration’s recent move to partner up with the private sector to buy up the toxic assets of Wall Street financial firms. The move, which was wildly popular on Wall Street, sparked a major stock market rally. </p>
<p>Let’s be clear about one thing. While right-wing populist ranters such as Rush Limbaugh salivate about the evils of big government, there is nothing big financial firms and other top corporations love more than handouts of tax dollars to them. The Obama administration’s policy toward the financial sector, so far at least, has been to shovel out the money while leaving the private bankers in charge. The president is so afraid of nationalizing the banks, a policy favoured by economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman among others, that he is willing to run the risk of putting Wall Street back in the driver’s seat while leaving the tax payers stuck with a mountain of bad debts.</p>
<p>The same thing is almost certain to happen with the auto industry. While Obama was smart enough to offer up the head of GM’s Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner on a platter before he bails out General Motors and Chrysler, it will be the workers and the retired auto workers who are going to pay the real price in lost jobs, devastated communities, lower pay, and lower pensions. The president insists, as in the case of the financial sector, that Washington doesn’t want to run the auto companies. What that means is that the workers and the tax payers will shoulder the burden and the private owners will be put back on the road to profitability and riches.</p>
<p>Barack Obama’s much touted promise to transcend the partisan divide forced his administration to cut $80 billion from his economic stimulus package. The cuts came in plans to spend money on school construction, on aid to the unemployed to maintain their health care and in the provision of food stamps, among other things. In return for these cuts to his plan, the president failed to win the support of a signal Republican in the House of Representatives, and wound up with the backing of only a handful of Republican Senators.</p>
<p>An exceptionally skilled communicator, Barack Obama is well aware of the anger now felt by Americans. He knows this anger could provide fuel for him to make basic, progressive reforms. But he is well aware that the anger could invigorate the Republicans and energize them for a populist, anti-Big Government, pro-tax cutting run in the midterm Congressional elections in 2010. </p>
<p>Barack Obama is trying to stay right in the centre, just where Bob Rae tried to stay. He could pull it off. But his constant yielding to Wall Street, and his fear of being labeled a foe of free enterprise is making him pay a huge price, both in the nature of the stimulus and bailouts he is offering, as well as in putting on hold programs to help ordinary Americans with the health-care, education, housing, reconstruction of cities, and provision of jobs they so desperately need.</p>
<p>Let’s hope he doesn’t end up in “dead centre” in the way Bob Rae did.</p>
</p></div></div></div>Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:05:43 +0000James Laxer65116 at https://rabble.caPolitics that pack more punchhttps://rabble.ca/books/reviews/politics-pack-more-punch
<div class="field field-name-field-related-item1 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.transformingpower.ca/en" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Transforming Power is launching in your city!</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item1-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item2-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-title-of-book field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Transforming Power: From The Personal To The Political</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item3-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-autho-of-book field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Judy Rebick</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/judy%20rebick.jpg?itok=5hYC6RZk" width="1180" height="600" alt="" title="Transforming Power" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-publisher-of-book field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Penguin Canada</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/39107">Judy Rebick</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-published-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">2008</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-dek field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In this excerpt from her new book, Judy Rebick identifies a new generation of activists who are taking part in a new kind of politics that&#039;s grassroots and highly networked</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">March 12, 2009</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-price-of-book field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">$24.00</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-5 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/slug/excerpt">excerpt</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>While the new Left of the 1960's, feminism, and various New Age projects challenged authoritarianism, the political Left never managed to change its authoritarian and patriarchal mode of functioning. The Left believed that to be effective and take on a centralized and authoritarian power, they, too, had to concentrate power. For the social democratic Left, the pressure of the media to conform to highly managed political interventions and, eventually, to highly managed political conventions was deadly to internal party democracy. As early as 1979, British socialist feminists were making the argument that the political Left needed to transform itself, following the example of the new social movements, most importantly the feminist movement.</p><p>But the problem goes beyond patriarchal modes of functioning to our very notions of power. The Left has always seen power as being located in the state and in the corporations. The way to change the world was to get state power and make changes to state and economic structures. The women's movement, anti-racist groups, and the environmental movement introduced the idea that we must also change our personal behaviour if we want to change the world. All these movements broadened the idea of politics into the realm of the personal relationships between humans and the environment. Power was understood as something each of us exercises in our lives as part of a dominant group, including our human dominance over nature and its creatures. These ideas of power were influential in organizations and in community, but somehow didn't change our ideas of political change. Today, we are seeing the beginnings of that kind of change in the notions of transformative power.</p><p>...</p><p>Given the failure of the Left, the labour movement, and the social movements to creatively resist neo-liberalism, it makes sense that when a new generation emerged to fight corporate globalization, they created horizontal structures and demonstrated an abhorrence of any kind of top-down leadership. In the demonstrations against the various summits of the WTO, FTAA, G8, and the rest of the alphabet soup of global-governance institutions, young demonstrators set up affinity groups and spoke circles that made decisions by consensus.</p><p>These affinity groups have morphed into a new kind of movement politics that is most advanced in Europe. It is called networked politics, and it is tremendously effective in a number of ways. Many of the most visible protests in Europe, such as the Spanish response to the 2004 Madrid subway bombings, the rebellion of immigrant youth in the suburbs of Paris in 2005, and the mass upsurge in France in 2006 against a new employment bill that discriminated against young workers, were all organized through informal networks. When formally organized political forces wanted to set up a coordinating body to institutionalize these semi-spontaneous uprisings, none of the young people involved were interested. Not only do these groups resist any kind of formal structure, they also opt out of the corporate global media system by refusing to have identifiable leaders or spokespeople.</p><p>Jeff Juris, an American activist and academic from this new generation, explains that "none of these practices or ideas are necessarily new; these discussions go back to the debate in the early part of the twentieth century about different kinds of organization [between anarchists and socialists]. But technology facilitates more decentralized practices, and allows for scalability. In the debate between vertical and horizontal forms, the horizontal forms perhaps have more of an advantage than they used to, so they are diffusing relatively widely."</p><p>The World Social Forum is probably the largest and most complex political network in the world. Its Charter of Principles contains three principles of horizontality. One is respect for diversity that not only values and celebrates political, social, and cultural diversity, but sees the need to constantly extend the network to new actors. The second principle is that no individual or organization can speak in the name of the network. People may speak for themselves or for their own organizations, but no one speaks for the World Social Forum. The third has to do with the inevitable decision-making process that comes from this form of organization, and it insists on consensus.</p><p>Before you roll your eyes and say that this could never work on a large scale considering the complexity of modern society, we should look at a very similar network that has taken on mighty Microsoft and produced an amazingly successful computer operating system, as well as numerous programs that many believe are of much higher quality than the corporate product. Open source software functions like a network, in many ways similar to the World Social Forum.</p><p>The open source system, also called Linux, was created by Linus Torvalds, whose approach has been characterized as "release [program codes] early and release often; delegate everything you can; be open to the point of promiscuity." In theory, this could result in products and projects that were chaotic and contradictory. However, Linux competes successfully with Microsoft, which is based on the old proprietary methods, and continues to grow.</p><p>Contributors to open source projects are motivated by the challenge of writing new code, building on the creativity of others, and the chance to act as partners in the project, rather than by personal financial gain. Challenge and the opportunity to collaborate must be available before a person can start an open source project, or a project founded on the open source model. While people pursue their individual interests, they are doing so while promoting the good of all. Thus, while each person is actually following his or her own agenda, the end result also benefits everyone else involved. In a way, open source turns the neo-liberal ideal of self-interest as a motivating force for the market on its head, liberating the creativity of each individual but in the context of a collective project, in which sharing knowledge and building on the knowledge of others becomes the goal -- rather than profit and competition.</p><p>This is a particularly exciting idea, because one of the acknowledged strengths of capitalism is its capacity for innovation, and we are always told that money must be the motivating force for that innovation. Open source proves that challenge -- rather than money -- can be the motivating force for innovation.</p><p>The metaphor of "open source" is also becoming a key element in the new ideas about democracy. The code is legible, transparent, and open. It can be modified by anyone and favours individual autonomy, participation, and control over giving power to a representative or a particular group. Openness, as an ethical principle, also refers to reciprocal listening, communication, connectivity, and inclusion.</p><p>...</p><p>The Obama campaign used the principles of networked politics both to fundraise and to organize. The most sophisticated online fundraising operation in the world, <a href="http://www.moveon.org" rel="nofollow">www.moveon.org</a>, was assisting him, and obviously he has brilliant online strategists from the generation that grew up with networking online. While the campaign machine itself was probably organized in a fairly traditional, professional, top-down manner, they were organizing a grassroots campaign. If you signed up as a volunteer, you could get a list of phone numbers of people to call and a script of what to say. No one monitored what you were doing; you didn't have to join the Democratic Party to do it, or go to a meeting to be trained. They just assumed that if you supported Barack Obama and wanted to volunteer time, then they wanted you involved.</p><p>In the kickoff of the presidential campaign, they contacted every supporter from the primary races to get involved in a day of action. The message read:</p><p><em>A year ago this week, our grassroots supporters organized a nationwide canvass in more than 1,000 cities to introduce people to Barack Obama.</em></p><p><em>Since then, we've had an unprecedented primary season that built a grassroots infrastructure in all 50 states -- not just for Barack, but for all of the Democratic candidates.</em></p><p><em>Now it's time to bring all of that energy together for our common cause of change.</em></p><p><em>All across the country, Democrats, Independents, and even Republicans are tired of the politics of the past and are looking for new solutions to the challenges we're facing.</em></p><p><em>That's why we're launching a nationwide day of action on Saturday, June 28th, called "Unite for Change" -- and asking you to host a Unite for Change meeting in your neighborhood. In all 50 states, supporters like you -- seasoned veterans and first-time volunteers alike -- will host house meetings to reach out and bring together folks who supported all of the Democratic candidates (and those who are just tuning in to the process now).</em></p><p><em>The goal is to come together and use the common values we share to build a united volunteer organization in your neighborhood that will register new voters and build support locally.</em></p><p><em>It's going to be an amazing time, and hosting your own event is easy. We'll provide all the tools and resources you'll need. Here are the details:</em></p><p><em>Unite for Change Meetings<br />Saturday, June 28th<br />Host one in your community</em></p><p>That's it. Anyone who got that email could host a meeting for Barack Obama. Notice how the e-mail message gives credit to the grassroots supporters for beginning the process, and how easy and fun it makes it for someone to host an event at their house. The Obama campaign provided the tools and resources and left it up to the individual to handle the meeting. That kind of confidence in supporters is rarely seen in a traditional campaign, in which control over the message and the campaign is of paramount importance.</p><p>Internet expert Jesse Hirsh says the Obama campaign will transform electoral politics in the same way as the Kennedy-Nixon debate, which marked the moment that television took over electoral campaigns. According to Hirsh, this is the moment that the internet will take over. Hirsh is not an Obama supporter, but he is impressed with his campaign's understanding of the online culture. "The whole language of his site, its community, its friends, its social inclusion, its social movement, it's the cloud campaign in the sense that there's a commanding control mechanism that's keeping tight control of the messaging and the candidate, but the rest of it is this feel-good kind of cultural milieu, where they're getting you to work, and they're getting you to donate, and they're getting you to fundraise, and they're getting you to do all the things that a normal campaign would do. But the language, the tone and the culture are all social. It's all social networking, it's all community building, it's all the internet love-in, as the Facebook thing is."</p><p>...</p><p>Networked politics has its weaknesses, of course. While open source is a great challenge to the capitalist dogma that only money and competition can create innovation, as a governance structure it has shortcomings. Jesse Hirsh points out, "Open source's problem is governance. They don't have a governing structure. They don't have a dialogue about governing structure. They have a dialogue about how to manage code, which is a type of governance structure. But they don't have a dialogue on how to manage labour, on how to manage decision-making." As a result, the open source community is really a series of fiefdoms, with benevolent dictators and a series of camps.</p><p>Participants in the World Social Forum are having a major debate about the advantages and disadvantages of open organizing, with critics saying that it is time the WSF moves away from such openness into action.</p><p>Diversity of tactics is a great idea when it comes to valuing different skills and strengths, but it can be highly problematic. When the Black Bloc in Quebec City decided that throwing stones was a good tactic to delay the police's assault on the crowd, their actions may have greatly aggravated the tear gas retaliation from the police, which lasted two days. There was no discussion about the wisdom of this tactic. Protesters were given the choice to enter a "green zone," in which violence was less likely, but when things heated up, the police didn't respect any of the zones created by the organizers.</p><p>Consequently, the event was depicted in the media as a violent demonstration. The reality is that most of the aggression came from the police, but one or two photos of masked stone-throwing protesters was enough for the state and the media to blame the mostly peaceful demonstrators for the violence. Over time, in informal discussions, the movement concluded that such tactics were no longer acceptable, and they largely stopped, especially after a protester was killed in Genoa. But in a network, and especially across networks, there is no clear method of resolving differences except to walk away. Some of the work being done on dialogue and consensus can help to solve these problems, as long as it is acknowledged that the problems exist.</p><p>The challenge is to figure out how the networked politics approach can impact on the hierarchical institutions that have most of the power in our society. Open source shows that on the economic and creative level, networks have as good or better outcomes than hierarchy. Obama shows that introducing even an element of networked politics into a highly structured political system can vastly increase people's participation and the campaign's creativity.</p><p>Recognizing the weaknesses of networked politics does not in any way take away from its considerable strengths. It is the network with roots in the ground, on which any lasting transformation of power will take place.</p><p><em> Excerpted by permission of Penguin Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.</em></p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/-left">the left</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags-issues/2008-us-election">2008 US Election</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/activism">activism</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/23541">social media</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/books">books</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/23521">Social Forum</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/barack-obama">Barack Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags-issues/social-networking">social networking</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/social-movement">social movement</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/3822">book lounge</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/13194">international politics</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/23503">social change</a></div></div></div>Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:44:11 +0000alex64414 at https://rabble.caChanging world view!https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/uzma-shakir/changing-world-view
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Uzma Shakir</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/default_images/rabble-filler-photo.jpg?itok=sM2nM-OL" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p></p><p>How the world changes when you leave the borders of North America! Watching Obama from Canada and then from Pakistan is quite surreal! </p><p><strong>Part I - view from across the border</strong> </p><p>Watching Obama win the election last November in Canada I felt emotional, hopeful, excited to see a black American become the next resident of the White House. Given the importance of race in Canada and North America, it was significant to see a black man run for office and win. And yes race is important! It is important if you are Aboriginal, it is important if you are an immigrant of colour, it is important if you are in any way identified as a "visible minority." I should know I have lived it for the past 20 years in Canada.</p><p>It doesn't always have to be a negative experience; after all, I am a success story. But Canada is also not always the land of milk and honey for every racialized immigrant or refugee that lands on its rather inaccessible shores!</p><p>For example, more racialized people live in poverty today than non-racialized ones at least in the GTA (see studies done by Prof. Michael Ornstein, Prof. Grace-Edward Galabuzzi, United Way Of Greater Toronto) and this poverty is growing. Research shows that second generation racialized kids identify racism as their number one issue (see Prof. Jeffrey Reitz). Research also shows that the GTA is geographically becoming segregated in terms of income and race disparity -- majority of the population lives in declining and decaying inner suburbs and is immigrant, racialized and poor, while the rich non-racialized minority congregates in the center of the City (see David Hulchanski).</p><p>Equally, race is important in terms of some of the experiences of people of colour, for example, being racially profiled by authorities, victimized by hate crimes, subject of discrimination in employment, disproportionate numbers of suspension in schools and a normalizing public discourse that portrays whole communities as security threats and talks of curtailing civil liberties of some of our citizens as if it were okay. Don't believe me? Ask African Canadians, Muslims, Aboriginals to mention a few.</p><p>And believe it or not -- race is also important in our foreign policy especially if you view it from immigrant eyes. When Canada changes from being a peace-maker/keeper to being an apparent occupier/invader either by tacit acceptance or by explicit intervention in lands from which our new immigrants are arriving and where their families and friends still reside -- Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc. -- it is a problem that needs attention. Or when we adopt a partisan policy stance towards conflicts that are unresolved like Palestine and Israel when both Arabs/Muslims and Jews are Canadian citizens and deserve our 'equal' consideration, it is hard to be grateful or indeed hopeful. No! Immigrants do not owe their loyalty to Canada unquestioningly -- Canada needs to earn that loyalty just as immigrants earn their Canadian citizenship. Obama ushered in a new discourse!</p><p>No amount of Bush-lites (Blair, Sarkozy, Harper et al) -- what I call the Axis of the Unmentionables -- can convince me otherwise no matter how Orwellian their rhetoric maybe (double speak like: state imposed restrictions on dress (hijab) are to protect our freedoms; or that youth rioting to demand equal democratic rights are a threat to society; or that invasion of countries is to liberate them for democracy; or that faith based societies are dangerous because God has given us a mission for freedom and secularism). So yes! Obama election, his message of hope and change, his policy of negotiation, his promise of more government and social assistance and his accountability of the private sector did elate us all! At last the unbridled Bushmare was over and perhaps we could call a lie a lie and not a weapon of mass obfuscation!</p><p><strong>Part II - view from across the ocean</strong></p><p>Then in December I travelled to Pakistan -- a usual pilgrimage all immigrants make to their land of origin as often as their limited resources allow. I was in Pakistan for several months -- long enough to view the world from Pakistani eyes as Obama became a reality in the White House.</p><p>While in the West including Canada we see Pakistan as a source of all modern ills -- a sort of head-office of Terrorism Inc. -- in Pakistan, they see the world pitted against them unjustly. Through undemocratic regimes, political violence, corrupt politicians, feudal excesses, limited resources, bludgeoning population, environmental degradation, Pakistan chugs along. There are some moments of joy, few stories of heroism, occasional instances of brilliance and an undying belief in faith and hope. But this hope is different from Obama's tag line.</p><p>Mumbai attacks were seen by everyone inside and outside of Pakistan to be horrible and condemnable. But while the world quickly blamed Pakistan, including Obama, in Pakistan people hoped now others will understand what they go through -- having recently lost their own populist leader, namely, Benazir Bhutto, to such acts of wanton violence. In fact, more people died in Karachi &amp; Peshawar within days of the Mumbai incident than in the Mumbai attacks but this did not get reported in international press. Sympathy for India and statements by President Obama that everyone has a right to defend itself seemed justified in India and the West but in Pakistan it appeared a bit irresponsible. After all without any evidence of direct correlation between the terrorists and Pakistani government's willing involvement in it, an unnecessary carte blanche was being offered to India to violate Pakistan's sovereignty in the same manner as U.S.A did against Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11 -- an act condemned by President Obama as being wrong in his campaign speeches. </p><p>His statements may inspire hope in North America but in Pakistan they sound ominous and suspiciously similar to Bush rhetoric. Obama's claims to take troops out of Iraq and reinforce them in Afghanistan, is seen as dangerous since it merely flushes out the so-called extremists over the porous border into Pakistan. Continuing American drone attacks in the northern territory of Pakistan (supposedly to fight terrorism) against the wishes of Pakistani authorities that kill civilians daily, sounds like a continuation of US belligerence in the region and not a dramatic departure from the past. In fact, Pakistani government seems to have little control over rogue elements inside Pakistan. The fact that a U.S. sponsored democratically elected government in Pakistan cannot rein in its friend, U.S., and protect its own civilians merely undermines that government's ability to check the extreme elements. Then to blame it for failing to stop extremism is a Cheyney-ism we have heard before.</p><p>In the West, Pakistan is seen as an unstable and violent state exporting terrorism. In Pakistan they see the state being destabilized by foreign intervention, undeclared wars on Pakistani borders that are making the country vulnerable and violent incursions by Americans sowing the seeds of disaffection and further violence. Every day talk show hosts and their guests are at pains to point out that extremism in Pakistan (Taliban, Al Qaeda, local militants) was fostered, nourished and financially supported by America during Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (all through the 1980s) and now the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. It is Pakistanis who are paying the harshest price for this not Americans! Today's attack on the Sri Lankan Cricket team saw only Pakistani casualties.</p><p>Then came Israeli attack on Gaza! As over a thousand Palestinians lay dead, the West and especially President Obama condemned Hamas extremism not Israeli excesses. Guess what -- in Pakistan it was not seen as a statement of hope or change or indeed something new -- it was American hypocrisy as usual!</p><p>Obama was reported to say if someone attacked my daughters in their home, I would retaliate too. Ironically this was said at a time when more than 300 Palestinian children lay dead. This sounded obscene and vulgar in the streets of Karachi and Peshawar! Pakistanis can't help believing that no matter who resides in the Oval Office, white or black, they always treat them like children of a lesser god! If this is a new beginning with the Muslim world then the Muslim world is finding it hard to distinguish it from the ending of the old one!</p><p>And then came the inauguration. In the streets of Washington, Toronto, Paris, London and Berlin it was a great example of democracy and liberalism and the triumph of secularism. But in the streets of Karachi, Cairo, Algiers, Kulalumpur they watched a Christian leader crowned with Christian blessings. With every prayer, every benediction and every sermon, whether they called him Barack H. Obama or Barack Hussain Obama, Muslims wondered why they are reviled for being religious? After all Israelis invade, occupy and wage wars in the name of defending a Jewish homeland and Americans continue to defend their policies of aggression in the name of a state that is firmly grounded in Christianity? So why should Muslims be singled out for being extreme and labeled terrorist when they raise their voices and arms to protect their fellow Muslims?</p><p>Oh yes -- as I rave and rant about all that does not work in Pakistan and how inept and corrupt the government and the ruling class is -- I cannot help but look over my shoulder and wonder if anyone else in Canada has seen that the Emperor may have no clothes or is it just an optical illusion?</p></div></div></div>Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:04:29 +0000Uzma Shakir64198 at https://rabble.caHere's the real Obama questionhttps://rabble.ca/columnists/heres-real-obama-question
<div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/default_images/rabble-filler-photo.jpg?itok=sM2nM-OL" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>When Ken Dryden was named MVP after his first Stanley Cup in 1971, at age 23, even before his rookie season, he said he knew that, whatever he did for the rest of his life, he'd already done what he'd be remembered for. The question about Barack Obama is: Does that hold for him, too? It wouldn't be negligible.
<p> He is not just the first black president. He is the first who can't recall where he was when he heard that JFK had been shot - because he was 2! These factoids are linked. He belongs to a demographic - it made his win possible - that doesn't even get the problem with a black, a woman or a gay president. They don't clutch old identifications with race or "the West." They glory in "hybridity" and "mongrelization" - as Barack Obama did when he called himself a "mutt" like the shelter dog he'd prefer for his kids. For another demographic, this shift induces panic. They worry about "shrivelled birth rates" in the United States and its "enervated allies" (Mark Steyn); they mourn the decline of "the last serious Western nation." </p>
<p> No matter, a change has come. It is not a change Barack Obama brings, but one he marks. It already is. "A change is gonna come," sang Sam Cooke in the time of Martin Luther King, more a prayer than a song. That's why Jesse Jackson wept as he stood outside in the crowd on Obama victory night. </p>
<p> This is a politics of emotion and passion - of "bringing the passions back in," as a recent book on politics suggests. It celebrates change, with events such as next Tuesday's inauguration. But there's another kind of change in politics: not marking it but making it. That's what the New Deal of the 1930s did. It's unclear whether Barack Obama will initiate this kind of active change. </p>
<p> During the campaign, he offered few signs of real policy change. On foreign affairs, he said he'd "project" U.S. power, like all presidents. Domestically, he was for the free market and against universal health care. His appointments since the election have been wretchedly conventional, recycling officials not just from the Clinton era but the Bush one, too. Don't worry about change, he assured the worriers, "it comes from me." </p>
<p> On the other hand, there are subtle signs of profound differences. He didn't need to tell that huge audience in Berlin, "We've made our share of mistakes." Especially if he meant it. His speech on race and his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, was personal and brave. Even his recent silence on Gaza differed from the Bush-Harper knee-jerk support for Israeli bombing. It amounted to not quite falling in line. When he and Hillary Clinton finally spoke, they both expressed concern for "Palestinian and Israeli" civilian casualties. In diplo-speak, order counts and will be noted. The normal order is: Concern for Israel comes first. </p>
<p> So <em>will </em>he make real changes? He probably doesn't know himself, says Alexander Cockburn of <em>Counterpunch.org</em>. This, too, is part of the Obama demographic. He reached political maturity just as that old duality, right/left, ceased working as an ideological GPS. The left dissolved and the right strutted a while, then began to vaporize, too, as we've seen. No scripts are currently available. </p>
<p> It made sense that he became a community organizer. It's where you go to feel you can do good, without needing a broader political vision. But it won't help much in enlarged contexts, like the world or the planet. On the other hand, there's his book, the first one, pre-politics. It shows he has a ground-level sense of global realities like no other president: life in Indonesia; raised by a single mother; the ubiquitous roots of violence, rage, humiliation. </p>
<p> Who knows what he'll do? It's a kind of miracle he's there at all. But his book informs us that, beyond his role as symbol, there's someone intriguing at home. The issue is: Will that guy answer the door at the White House? </p>
</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/20376">presidential election</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags-issues/2008-us-election">2008 US Election</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/26213">U.S. politics</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/category/tags-issues/barack-obama">Barack Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/us-presidency">U.S. presidency</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/bios/contributor/columnist/rick-salutin">Rick Salutin</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">January 16, 2009</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item1 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://rabble.ca/columnists/countdown-changeor-more-same" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Countdown to change...or more of the same</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item1-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In less than a week what is possibly the worst administration that the United States has ever had will be over. The question remains: how much will things change?</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item2 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090126/green?rel=hp_currently">Ten Goals for Obama&#039;s First 1,460 Days</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item2-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Following the values of progressive patriotism, here&#039;s an ambitious agenda for the forty-fourth president&#039;s first - and second - terms.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item3 field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.rabble.ca/news/obama-victory-break-past" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Obama victory: A break from the past?</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-item3-desc field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The accession of the Democrat Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency marks a break with a pattern of American politics going back 40 years to the election of Richard Nixon.</div></div></div>Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:41:24 +0000mgregus62928 at https://rabble.caKeith Olbermann on Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage in Californiahttps://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/best-net/keith-olbermann-proposition-8-banning-same-sex-marriage-california
<div class="field field-name-field-where-to-find field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/27652443#27652443" target="_blank">msnbc.com</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/bios/rabble-staff/rabbletv">rabbleTV</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">November 13, 2008</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-17 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/rabbletv-channels/best-net">Best-of-the-net</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/default_images/rabble-filler-photo.jpg?itok=sM2nM-OL" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann comments on the passing by referendum of Proposition 8 in California banning same-sex marriage in that state.
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The set-back to gay rights has surprised many across North America who expected that California would oppose the ban. The proposition had been heavily funded by the Mormon Church.
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</div></div></div>Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:41:32 +0000Tor Sandberg61351 at https://rabble.caReaction to Obama’s victoryhttps://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/redeye/reaction-obama%E2%80%99s-victory
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/term/39981">Jane Williams</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-10 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/podcasts/shows/redeye">Redeye</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/default_images/rabble-filler-photo.jpg?itok=sM2nM-OL" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">November 19, 2008</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>
Robert Jensen is an author, anti-war activist and professor of journalism at the University of Austin in Texas. Lisa Moore is a long-time immigrant rights organizer from San Francisco, currently living in Vancouver.
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<p>
They share their thoughts about the election of the first African-American president in US history, a few days after Obama's November 4 victory.
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</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/2008-us-election">2008 US Election</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/taxonomy/term/18372">Obama</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-mp3 field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">
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</div></div></div>Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:48:15 +0000redeye61597 at https://rabble.caWorld to USA: It's Time for Changehttps://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/best-net/world-usa-its-time-change
<div class="field field-name-field-where-to-find field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgU6mHYIo40" target="_blank">YouTube</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/bios/rabble-staff/rabbletv">rabbleTV</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">November 2, 2008</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-17 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/rabbletv-channels/best-net">Best-of-the-net</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/default_images/rabble-filler-photo.jpg?itok=sM2nM-OL" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>
How Americans vote will influence whether we see a timed end to<br />
the war in Iraq, if we form an international consensus to tackle<br />
climate change, how we deal with the situation in Iran and North Korea,<br />
and whether we finally prioritize the fight to end global poverty.</p>
<p>
We've produced this global ad echoing the voices and concerns of the<br />
billions outside the US who can't vote. Avaaz.org put this video together to try and remind Americans of how important this election is.</p>
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</div></div></div>Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:12:14 +0000Tor Sandberg60944 at https://rabble.caBarbara West (WFTV) interviews Joe Bidenhttps://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/best-net/barbara-west-wftv-interviews-joe-biden
<div class="field field-name-field-where-to-find field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7EUeJa45kc" target="_blank">YouTube</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/bios/rabble-staff/rabbletv">rabbleTV</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">November 2, 2008</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-17 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/rabbletv-channels/best-net">Best-of-the-net</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/default_images/rabble-filler-photo.jpg?itok=sM2nM-OL" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Barbara West (WFTV) interviews Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden. The interview 'questions' are so full of misinformation it's a wonder Ms. West was ever hired - until you understand the American corporate media landscape.</p>
</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/2008-us-election">2008 US Election</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-embedded-video field-type-video-embed-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">
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</div></div></div>Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:47:19 +0000Tor Sandberg60946 at https://rabble.caSarah Palin gets crank-calledhttps://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/best-net/sarah-palin-get-crank-called
<div class="field field-name-field-where-to-find field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbEwKcs-7Hc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbEwKcs-7Hc</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/bios/rabble-staff/rabbletv">rabbleTV</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-story-publish-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single">November 2, 2008</span></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-17 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/rabbletv-channels/best-net">Best-of-the-net</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/default_images/rabble-filler-photo.jpg?itok=sM2nM-OL" width="1180" height="600" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>A Quebec comedy duo notorious for prank calls to celebrities and<br />
heads of state has reached Sarah Palin, convincing the Republican<br />
vice-presidential nominee she was speaking with French President<br />
Nicolas Sarkozy.</p>
</p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-9 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/tags-issues/2008-us-election">2008 US Election</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-embedded-video field-type-video-embed-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">
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<div class="player">
<iframe class="" width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QbEwKcs-7Hc?width%3D640%26amp%3Bheight%3D360%26amp%3Bautoplay%3D0%26amp%3Bvq%3Dlarge%26amp%3Brel%3D0%26amp%3Bcontrols%3D1%26amp%3Bautohide%3D2%26amp%3Bshowinfo%3D1%26amp%3Bmodestbranding%3D0%26amp%3Btheme%3Ddark%26amp%3Biv_load_policy%3D1%26amp%3Bwmode%3Dopaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div>
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</div></div></div>Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:27:48 +0000Tor Sandberg60945 at https://rabble.caThe Ticket for America?https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/regina-mom/ticket-america
<div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-14 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Bernadette Wagner</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-for-node field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="https://rabble.ca/sites/default/files/styles/large_story_850px/public/node-images/GOPticket.jpg?itok=hoLT_c-C" width="1180" height="600" alt="Winkin&#039; Blinkin&#039; (&amp; Todd)" title="The GOP Ticket" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>
Thanks to skdadl (who blogs @ <a href="http://www.pogge.ca/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">pogge.ca</a> &amp; posts at <a href="http://www.breadnroses.ca/forums/index.php" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">BreadnRoses.ca</a>) for the idea!
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://thereginamom.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/gopticket1.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img src="/sites/rabble/files/node-images/GOPticket.jpg" alt="The GOP Ticket" width="433" height="340" /></a>
</p>
<blockquote><p>
<a href="http://laist.com/2008/08/29/ticket_for_america_revealederr_phot.php" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> The GOP Ticket</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
</p></div></div></div>Wed, 22 Oct 2008 06:53:36 +0000the regina mom12903 at https://rabble.ca